Ohio News Station Looks into Pharmacy Errors
NBC 4 in Columbus, Ohio recently began looking into how many pharmacy errors actually occur and after some digging found hundreds of examples of errors. NBC 4 requested the number of errors from the state pharmacy board. During the past two years, the board received 205 complaints, anything from the wrong medication to the wrong amount of pills.
“It’s really not that prevalent. Mistakes do occur. Pharmacists are human just like the rest of us. Pharmacists make mistakes, “said Bill Winsley, Ohio Board of Pharmacy executive director. When it comes to mistakes, Ohio has a self-reporting system, not a mandatory one. Legislators have talked about making it mandatory, but so far, it hasn’t happened.
“Our concern with mandatory reporting is we want it to be like the airlines have when the pilots don’t get penalized if they report a problem, a near-miss, even a mistake that they make, but rather they look at the system and say, ‘How do we fix it?‘“ said Ernie Boyd, of the Ohio Pharmacists Association.
Boyd would like to see pharmacists held accountable for serious offenses in civil court, rather than criminal court. “We just need our pharmacists protected enough so they will give you the answers you want, “Boyd said.
The way medicine is dispensed has changed a lot over the years. CVS now uses barcodes to cut down on mistakes. Both Walgreens and Rite-Aid are filling a growing number of electronic prescriptions. “With the increasing use of electronics and health information technology and barcoding technology, those things have helped tremendously in the hospital and we’re seeing that translated into the community setting as well, “said Bob Brueggemeier, Ph.D., Dean of The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy.
Students at OSU’s College of Pharmacy are quizzed on case studies about pharmacists dispensing one medication instead of another and how to avoid such a mistake. They also learn about drug interactions and the process of double-checking every prescription.
The 205 pharmacy complaints in Ohio from 2007 through 2008 break down as follows:
- CVS: 35 errors
- Rite Aid: 25 errors
- Giant Eagle: 17 errors
- Kroger: 19 errors
- Wal-Mart: 20 errors
- Walgreens: 17 errors
- Meijer: 3 errors
- Others: 69 errors
Every year in the U.S. pharmacists make 30 million dispensing errors out of the 3 billion prescriptions filled.
That’s according to the National Patient Safety Foundation and while many errors are minor, some are fatal.
To avoid being a victim of these errors:
- Don’t get a prescription filled at the beginning of the month. Research shows that the first few days of each month, fatalities due to medication errors rise by 25 percent. The reason, experts said Social Security checks are issued at the beginning of the month and there are more prescriptions to fill.
- Open the bottle at the pharmacy. Make sure it’s the right bill and if you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask the pharmacist.
- Don’t be in a rush. Take the time to get detailed instructions on your medication. Errors happen not only with the wrong medication, but also in taking the wrong dosage.
